Fritha padded through the darkness along a stone-flagged street, a skin of wine in one hand. Behind her the sounds of revelry echoed out from Balara’s hall and tower. She did not feel like merrymaking.
I will save that for after the battle.
All had their own way of finding their courage before a fight. Fritha wanted quiet but the noise in the hall was filling her head with chaos. She walked along the wide street that led from Balara’s tower towards the gates. Behind her she heard the slither and rasp of scales on stone, and then Elise was beside her.
“What issss it?” Elise asked her, “enemy in the treesss? A night attack?”
“No, my love, I just wanted some quiet,” Fritha said.
“May I ssstay?” Elise asked.
“Of course,” Fritha said, her fingers brushing Elise’s hand.
They walked silently through the fortress, passing guards stationed along the way. Iron braziers burned in the courtyard, flames swirling in a breeze. Acolytes sat around the fires, others lining the walls. They moved out of the way as Fritha and Elise scaled the stairs and walked along the wall.
Arn was already upon the wall, staring out towards Ripa. He nodded a greeting and fell in silently behind them. Stone turned to timber beneath their feet as they crossed sections of the wall that had crumbled to ruin and been repaired by men. Fritha eventually found a spot that she deemed right for her mood, dark and silent. It was to the west of the gate tower, overlooking the dense shadows of the Sarva Forest. She sat, dangling her legs over the wall, and took a drink from her wine skin. Arn sat one side of her and Elise coiled the other.
Silence settled about them, only the soughing of wind in trees, the creak and scrape of branches. In the distance, from within the forest, Fritha heard the howl of one of her Ferals, taken up by others.
My babies are hunting in those woods. And guarding us, too. Nothing on the ground could slip past them.
“A long time,” Fritha said into the darkness, “since my Anja was murdered by Ben-Elim, and you both found me, somehow brought me back from a darkness worse than death.” She looked at them both. “You both saved me.”
“We have sssaved each other, countless timessss,” Elise hissed, her tongue flickering.
Arn grunted his agreement, his hand on the starstone axe at his belt.
“And everything we have done, strived for, it will be decided on the morrow,” Fritha said, taking another sip of wine.
And if we win, what then? A brave new world. One where Asroth rules, with me at his side. She felt a shiver at the thought, pleasure and fear. Will Asroth keep his word, once we have helped him win? I do not know, and that is why I am gathering my friends. Wrath, Elise, Arn; and Jin will be next. She is no fool. Together we are a force that Asroth cannot discard. Or easily destroy. But these are thoughts for another day. Right now, there is only the morrow. She felt so many things; excited, melancholic, fearful, angry, all of those emotions swirling through her blood, mixing and blending. She reached out a hand and put it upon Elise’s, squeezed it, then reached out to Arn, too, and squeezed his hand.
“Together we shall face all that this world throws at us.”
“Aye,” Arn said. “Together. We are as close as kin now.”
“We are,” Fritha agreed.
“We shall avenge my fallen mother, hung from a rope by Ben-Elim for no real crime,” Elise hissed. “We shall wipe the Ben-Elim from the face of the earth, and make thisss a better world for those who follow after usss.”
“We shall,” Fritha said. Her hand went to the swell of her belly. She felt a kick, as if her unborn child agreed with her.
“No flying away if thingsss go bad, thisss time,” Elise said.
“No,” Fritha said. “This is one battle that there is no running from. Tomorrow we will win or we will die.”